Martinsburg gazette. (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1886-1887, 1887-02-25
THE HOME DOCTOR.
Cause aud Cure OF Nasal Catarrb.

Melville G. Keith, M. d.. gives in
. HsalM and Home the subjoined explana-
ton OF the cause and cure Of that com
mon trouble, nasal catarrh
First. Take two glasses and fill one
glass with clear dry starch. FIJI the
other glass with acid of any kind Now
turn the two glasses mouth to mouth and
shake the contents together vigorously
for thirty minutes. When this is finished
you will find that all the starch has been
changed to sugar by the action Of the
acid. This is a lava chemical law
which is so well understood that hum
dreds of thousands Of dollars are ex-
pended in the construction Of manufac-
tories to turn the starch of corn into glu-
cose, thence into sugar.
Now this process is also physiologi-
cal Law. ror all the starch taken into
the stomach, as food, must be changed
by an acid into dextrine, and next into
sugar. When the starch has been
changed by this acid into sugar, the
sugar is used up BY the body to furnish
heat. When it is not used up as heat
the sugar thus formed from starch can
be turned into fat. It does not matter
whether we regard the saliva, the gas
trio juice, the pancrcatic juice or the sue
Gus entericus Juice Of the intestines1, as
acids or ssferments. 1He acid must bean
the body and mus, be placed in contact
with the starch, Or the starch remains IN
changed.
This is law just as much as it's law
that you can take two glasses full Of
starch and shake them together through
all the eternal ages, and you would have
two glasses Of starch when you finished.
Starch requires an acid to change it to
sugar and this law holds good as well in
the human body as it does IN the glucose
mandatory.
Now apply this law to the diet Of the
ordinary individual and you hare tho
cause of catarfh.
The human being who takes in starch
Is food, and does not have sufficient
quantity Of acid to change the starch in
to dextrine and thence into sugar, will
have that starch either passed off as un
digested starch or it remains in the body
as undigested Starch. But in any event
it IS starch, starch, star b, and so re-
mains. As long as it is well diluted and
Kept at the body tempesature OF ninety
eight to nlnety-nine degrees it will be
fluid, and, in the case Of q laboriDg man,
. portion OF it may be spit up and spit
of, especially BY users Of tobacco. But
cold in the head partially congeals this
starch and itbecomes thick emulation
from the mucous membrane. There IS
q dropping OF this undigested starch
(Which is exuded or thrown out through
the mucous membrane) into the throat,
and the unfortunate wretch has the
catarrh.
Starch then IS the basis of catarrh.
Hundreds Of people 60 to see some
specialist in catarrh, +" and pay big fee
to have their catarrh cured. The special
ist (who usually travels and advertises
in oil the leading papers) has powerful
douche and forces d spray of an acid,
usually alum, but sometimes diluted sui
phnric or nitric acid, through this power
full douche into the most lis and throat
and clears out the offending excess Of
starch. The patient thinks himself or
herself cured. But the mucous membrane
of the nostrils and throat are simply
deadened and tanned.
The sense Of smelling is lost and the
victim Of the specialist will have tEc
catarrah return again if the same classes
Of food are eaten
In countries where rice is eaten, the
natives have sufficient quantity OF acid
from the fruits and vegetable to assist IN
changing the starch into sugar.
Blu III til country where potatoes are
q very common article of diet, the starch
is in excess, and there is not enough acid
eaten to change the starch into sugar.
Hence potato eaters are usually the per-
sons who have an excess of starch in the
body and who suffer from catarrh. The
potato contains one-fifth Of pure starch